A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend about downloading digital music. Both of us are 40 something and consider ourselves European, hip chicks, well hippish! We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said “How does that work then!?” I know, don’t laugh, it does appear quite a sad state of affairs in this digital age but it just hasn’t been on the radar for either of us.
Now if you want to ask about harvesting olives or making great pasta, then we know stuff, but digital music, nah, niente.
However a bit of research can be an enlightening thing...
So with being a big lover of music and not wanting to get too behind on this digital revolution, although I still have not succumbed to having bits of plastic stuck in my ears 24/7 in a drive not to have my brain continually filled with ‘stuff’ I have climbed aboard and am thoroughly enjoying the ride.
My research led me to one particular company that I liked, and that’s emusic. They are largest provider of independent digital music worldwide, and with 6 million tracks you can find pretty much anything that you want.
The market leaders are iTunes but their focus is to sell hardware, eMusic is about selling music and that message comes through from the website. Their primary concern is to sell content, and that's why they have become so popular. It's like an independent record store vs. A hyper - market.
eMusic sets itself apart from other services by offering downloads in true MP3 format with no DRM or copy protection of any kind. Their MP3's play on any portable music player including the iPod® , Creative Zen® and Sony Walkman®. They can be downloaded to unlimited computers and allows for unlimited CD burning.
Not entirely sure what all that means, but it sounds good doesn’t it? I get the bit about unlimited burning.
The other thing I really liked was – FREE MUSIC! For a newby it was good to check out the service, get 25 free downloads and know I could cancel if I wanted to. It really gave me confidence to check them out.
Cool facts -
Risk Free trial: emusic offers you a risk free trial subscription. You can download up to 25 MP3s free of charge for 14 days. If you are unsatisfied for any reason you can simply cancel your account during the trial period. You will not be charged and the music you download is yours to keep.
50 bonus songs: emusic offers new customers 50 bonus songs with your first month's subscription. Again, if you are not satisfied for any reason you can cancel your account after the first month and keep all of the music you have downloaded, including the 50 free MP3s.
Is that enough compelling reasons to get signed up? I think so!
